Kanye Sues Coinye, and The Cryptocurrency’s Creators Back Down

Creators of the Bitcoin-like digital currency indicated Tuesday that they were abandoning the venture after rapper Kanye West filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in a federal court in New York, The Verge reports.

“Coinye is dead. You win Kanye,” a message posted in Coinyeco.in reads:

Credit: Coinyeco.in

West’s lawsuit, which demanded companies and individuals stop exchanging the currency, alleged that the creators of the cryptocurrency unfairly profited off the rapper’s fame and hurt his reputation, the Associated Press reports. The developers used a cartoon image of a coin that features the rapper in large sunglasses to represent the currency.

It remains to be seen whether “Coinye” is really gone for good. Once cyber-currencies go live, they can be very difficult to eliminate, which is why creators rushed to launch Coinye last week. “We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it,” one of the developers told the Wall Street Journal.